


Only Once a Year

by weasleytook



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-26
Updated: 2011-10-26
Packaged: 2017-10-25 00:24:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just my version of a missing scene from episode 1x02.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only Once a Year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galfridian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galfridian/gifts).



Emily takes one last glance towards the Grayson house where she can see Victoria’s unmistakable silhouette walk from the terrace and back into the house. She grins with satisfaction before she heads back into her own house.

“Hoping Victoria saw your little make-out session with Daniel?”

“Nolan! What are you still doing here? Party’s over, everyone is supposed to leave, especially you.”

He’s sitting at her dining table with a pink cardboard box in front of him, a crooked grin creeping up on his face.. “I had one more thing to give you for your birthday. Besides the deed to your house. I - uhh - had it when I saw you earlier but -”

“Earlier?”

“When you jumped into the backseat of my car like some sort of horror movie serial killer.”

She steps closer to the table and Nolan slides the box across the wood towards her. Emily unties the red ribbon holding the box closed and lifts the lid slowly. It’s one single cupcake, topped with a mountain of pink icing and multi-colored confetti. Stuck in the middle is a single white candle.

“You can’t have a birthday without at least a little birthday cake. Besides, I’m sure you have all kinds of wishes to make on that candle.”

She smiles. Just a little. It’s so quick she’s not even sure he notices it. She hopes he doesn’t.

“I told you before. Amanda Clarke is -”

“Dead and gone. I know.” His crooked grin turns into a smile as he continues, “You may not want to celebrate it, but someone should remember the day you were born. Your dad would -”

“Stop.”

She knows he means well, but it all hurts too much. Emily doesn’t want Nolan or anyone else to see the cracks that are always there. The ones that threaten to burst wide open at any time and ruin all of her careful planning.

Nolan stands and the smile morphs into an annoyed smirk. “I suppose that’s one way to say thank you.”

Emily feels something starting to build and it’s as if her emotions are trying to crawl their way out of her but she pauses and swallows it down. She lifts her gaze back to Nolan, careful not to betray what she’s feeling when she does.

“Good night, Nolan.”

He taps his fingers on the back of the chair he was just sitting in, like there’s something else he wants to say but won’t.

“Good night, Emily.”

She thinks she hears him sigh as he turns and walks out of her house and when he’s gone she relaxes in relief.

Nolan could be her greatest ally. He could be someone she might trust. But, it costs her too much to have him around.

Every time she looks at him, she thinks of the past she left behind, her father dying alone in a cold grey prison cell and how maybe her father was more of a parent to Nolan in those final years than he could be to her.

If things were different, maybe she wouldn’t mind having him around so much. He has skills and resources that are useful to her, ones that she plans to keep using as long as possible, but she doesn’t need a friend.

She tells herself one more time that she doesn’t need Nolan Ross and she definitely doesn’t need to remember her birthday. But she still goes to look for a match to light the candle anyway.

One little birthday wish couldn’t hurt.


End file.
